Tuesday 8 August (Part One)

 A Morning Walk to Poblado Marinero

Today has turned out to be a fab day in what is a great week here at the Hotel Barcelo Santiago.  We got up relatively early and set off on foot to Poblado Marinero, the first place we ever stayed in the Canaries almost 40 years ago and which was around a 40-minute walk away from the hotel.

Note the typical Canarian balconies above what was a favourite watering hole of ours when we used to go with Elizabeth parents and Catherine and Sarah. I remember that they had a great range of cakes to enjoy with our mid-morning coffee

The Los Gigantes Hotel where we stayed a few years ago

The swimming pool where Catherine learned to swim.  We stayed at this complex around 1993 or 1994 when we rented a pair of privately-owned villas in the complex on the hillside. On Christmas Eve that year the owner phoned us wondering if she could ask what we had paid. She said that the manager of the complex had said that a poor family (us apparently!) had turned up and had said that we couldn't afford much so he had let us have the rental at a heavily discounted price - yeah, yeah.  Guess he got fired soon after that

We wanted to go early as it would be cooler then, although we knew that most tourist places wouldn’t open until 10am.  It was a fairly demanding walk as it was uphill a lot before going back downhill to the marina.

After walking by the Tamara complex we walked through the back of the Poblado Marinero complex to get to the small beach behind it.  Our overall impression was that the whole area had been smartened up quite noticeably since we were last here in 2018 when we stayed at the Los Gigantes hotel.

A British tourist was killed here a few years ago when there was a rockfall.  I see that since then they sem to have wired off the rock face to help to prevent future incidents of this sort.

Spot the cat!

We stayed in the apartment upstairs on the left during our first ever visit in 1985. It looked out on to the marina so was a great intro to the Canaries for us. On our first night a dry desert storm blew up.  It pushed open to the french doors leading on to our small balcony and I can remember standing there enjoying the warm Saharan wind blowing on to me.  I felt I had never experienced anything like it.

And this was the front of our accommodation

As a result it was probably better than we remembered it and made us both quite nostalgic.  We came back for a late breakfast and stocked up well on the basis that we probably wouldn’t then eat until the evening.

Oh, look. If it isn't the good old "Jolly Roger"!

Making notes for our visit in February when we hope to drive here

Just a small selction of the many bus routes from here to all over the island.  Good value fares, we hear

The Los Gigantes Hotel is visible everywhere!

Oh, look - a beach, but how you get down to it is another matter!

La Gomera is finally becoming visible after days in the haze